Studies – General Research

Please Note that any non-invasive prenatal chromosomal tests could test positive, possibly from cancer present in the mother. “[T]he new findings underscore the need to have any positive result confirmed by amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling diagnostic test before considering whether to terminate a pregnancy or to plan for a child with developmental disabilities”… “Based on the results of the study, we estimate there is between a 20% and 44% risk of maternal cancer if multiple aneuploidies are detected [in the prenatal tests].“ [Comment: Note this quote from the article: “The unexpected finding emerged in a study involving eight women who initially had abnormal results from the prenatal blood test, but for whom a subsequent assessment showed their babies were normal. When the mothers’ DNA was reanalyzed, researchers said, the anomalies were linked to cancer in each of the women.” However, a December 2014 NBC News article “Prenatal Tests Have High Failure Rate, Triggering Abortions” (online at: http://www.nbcnews.com/health/womens-health/prenatal-tests-have-high-failure-rate-triggering-abortions-n267301) states: “But positive results can be wrong 50 percent or more of the time. And an investigation by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting published in the Boston Globe found that “likely hundreds” of women are aborting fetuses based on this new generation of (noninvasive) testing. One company reported a 6.2 percent abortion rate based on screening results alone — and without further testing, there is no way to know how many of those may have been due to a false positive. (emphasis added)” Having had a daughter Karen with Down Syndrome in 1982, I was often asked if I had had prenatal testing which at that time was primarily...

This recent review article is a publication, ahead of printing, in Issues in Law & Medicine, Volume 30, Number 1 (Spring), 2015. Elard Koch, Director of Research MELISA Institute, Concepcion, Chile. Fifty References. ABSTRACT: Mortality by abortion has continuously decreased over the past fifty years in Chile. In fact, maternal death as a result of an induced abortion has become an exceptionally rare phenomenon in epidemiological terms (a risk of 1 in 4 million pregnant women of fertile age or 0.4 per 100,000 life births for abortion of any type, excluding ectopic pregnancy). After abortion became illegal in 1989, deaths related to abortion continued to decrease from 10.8 to 0.39 per 100,000 live births. This scientific fact challenges the common notion that less permissive [stricter] abortion laws lead to greater mortality associated with abortion. …[A] more recent second line of prevention has been the emergence of support programs for vulnerable women with unplanned pregnancies at risk for abortion, which are conducted by the community or by local obstetric teams in the case of serious congenital diseases. Expanding the coverage of these preventive programs, as well as monitoring their effectiveness, is necessary to prevent clandestine abortions and to continue to decrease their incidence in the Chilean female population… A third factor to consider as a major determinant in the decrease in abortion-related morbidity, has been the emergence and gradual expansion of community preventive programs in Chile (e.g., Fundación Chile Unido, Fundación San José, Proyecto Esperanza, Fundación Maternitas, ISFEM, etc.). These programs identify the specific situation leading to vulnerability in unplanned pregnancies at risk for abortion and offer immediate support to...

American College of Pediatricians – February 2015 ABSTRACT: Induced abortion is the most common surgical procedure performed on females of child-bearing age, including adolescent women. Consequently, pediatricians should be familiar with the short-term and long-term risks of induced abortion and also be able to compassionately discuss these risks with adolescents and involved family members. Some of the potential short- and long-term risks include increased mortality from suicide and other violence, as well as natural causes; increased risk of breast cancer; greater rates of substance abuse; and higher risk of morbidity and mortality for subsequent children due to premature births, especially very premature births. Patient education on the risks of induced abortion should be considered during anticipatory guidance discussions at well-child visits during the immediate pre- and adolescent years. Introduction The annual number of induced abortions in the United States was 1,058,000 in 20111 (and an unknown number worldwide); of these approximately 186,200 were on early/middle (teenaged) adolescents. Including those performed on older adolescents/young women of college age (20-24), approximately 540,000 induced abortions2 occur annually on US adolescent/young adults prior to full brain maturation. The prefrontal cortex of the brain, the area used in complex decision-making, is not fully mature until about age 25.3 From 1967-2011, nearly 54 million abortions have been reported in the US (all ages).4 Aside from any ethical considerations, the magnitude of these numbers makes it important to consider associated risks and sequelae from a public health perspective. I. Inherent Difficulties in Studying Induced Abortion A. Researcher bias The highly charged issue of induced abortion has, unfortunately, often been characterized by polarized research: Many of the...

For twenty-five years the pro-life movement has stood up to defend perhaps the most crucial principle in any civilized society, namely, the sanctity and value of every human life. However, neither the profundity and scale of the cause, nor the integrity of those who work to support it, necessarily translates into effective action. Recent research on the psychology of pro-choice women offers insight into why the pro-life movement has not been as effective as it might have been in persuading women to choose life; it also offers opportunities to improve dramatically the scope and influence of the pro-life message, particularly among women of childbearing age. This research suggests that modern American women of childbearing age do not view the abortion issue within the same moral framework as those of us who are pro-life activists. Our message is not being well-received by this audience because we have made the error of assuming that women, especially those facing the trauma of an unplanned pregnancy, will respond to principles we see as self-evident within our own moral framework, and we have presented our arguments accordingly. This is a miscalculation that has fatally handicapped the pro-life cause. While we may not agree with how women currently evaluate this issue, the importance of our mission and the imperative to be effective demand that we listen, that we understand, and that we respond to the actual concerns of women who are most likely to choose abortion. The importance of a new approach became clear from the results of sophisticated research pioneered by the Caring Foundation, a group that presents the pro-life message to the public...

A New Understanding of the Trauma of Abortion The pro-life movement has long endeavored to understand the complex emotional struggle behind a woman’s decision to continue or abort an unplanned pregnancy. To explore the dynamics of this dilemma and to aid pro-life groups in assisting women in crisis, the Vitae Foundation in Jefferson City, Missouri pioneered a series of landmark studies on women and abortion. Unlike previous research, these revolutionary studies focused neither on the moral reasoning of the pro-life movement, nor on attitudinal surveys that yield primarily statistical snapshots, but on independent psychological analysis of women’s hidden, emotional response to pregnancy, abortion, and motherhood. The interviews followed Right Brain ResearchTM methodology: lengthy one-on-one interviews lasting 75 to 110 minutes, utilizing visualization, repetition, and relaxation techniques to access the emotional mind and uncover deeply seated emotional needs and barriers, often with very surprising results. The first project, “Abortion As the Least of Three Evils — Understanding the Psychological Dynamics of How Women Feel About Abortion” [http://www.heartbeatinternational.org/pdf/abortion-least_of_three.pdf ] was published in summary form by First Things under the title “Abortion: A Failure to Communicate”(1998). The findings from a cross-section of women of child-bearing age, were groundbreaking, and became the most requested article since First Things was founded. The second project, titled “How Women Make Decisions About Unwanted Pregnancies,” is the subject of this article. It focused on women who had already been pregnant and it sought to uncover the dynamics behind the decision to keep, adopt, or abort a child. The findings provided deep insights into the stages that women who face a surprise pregnancy experience: suspicion, then fear, then...

ABSTRACT Aim: Oral contraceptive use influences the risk for certain cancers; however, few studies have examined any link with risk of central nervous system tumors. We investigated the association between hormonal contraceptive use and glioma risk among premenopausal women in a population-based setting. Methods: Using national administrative and health registries in Denmark to conduct a nationwide case–control study, we identified all women ages 15 to 49 years with a first-time diagnosis of histologically verified glioma between 2000 and 2009. Each case was age-matched to eight population controls using risk set sampling. Based on prescription data, exposure until 2 years prior to the index date was categorized according to hormonal contraceptive type, i.e., combined estrogen–progestagen or progestagen-only, and duration of use (<1, 1 to <5, =5 years). We used conditional logistic regression to compute odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for glioma associated with hormonal contraceptive use, adjusting for potential confounders. Results: We identified 317 cases and 2,126 controls. Ever use of hormonal contraceptive was associated with an OR of 1.5 (95% CI: 1.2-2.0) and the OR increased with duration of use (long-term, =5 years: OR, 1.9; 95% CI: 1.2–2.9). The association between long-term hormonal contraceptive use and glioma risk was most pronounced for progestagen-only therapy (OR, 2.4; 95% CI: 1.1–5.1), especially when this regimen constituted the sole hormonal contraceptive therapy (OR, 4.1; 95% CI: 0.8–20.8). Conclusion: Long-term hormonal contraceptive use may increase the risk of glioma. Funding for Study This study was supported by grants from the Danish Cancer Society (grant no. R56-A2879), Odense University Hospital, and the University of Southern Denmark. The funding sources had no...

J Contemp Health Law Policy. 2004 Spring;20(2):279-327. Reardon DC1, Strahan TW, Thorp JM Jr, Shuping MW. 2004 PubMed PMID: 15239361 [ http://scholarship.law.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1159&context=jchlp ] Comment re: “The comparative safety of legal induced abortion and childbirth in the United States” by Elizabeth G Raymond, David A Grimes, Obstet Gynecol, 119 (2012) David Reardon | Mar 05 2014 16:17 EST The authors describe the objective of this review1 “is to provide an updated assessment of the safety of abortion relative to delivery.” But those familiar with the literature should be immediately struck by the fact that they fail to cite, much less discuss, the large record linkage studies which contradict their conclusions. For example, our study of 173,279 low income women in California, linking medicaid records for pregnancy treatments with death certificates, revealed significantly higher rates of death associated with abortion compared to childbirth.2 Specifically, we found an elevated relative risk of death associated with abortion for all causes (RR=1.62), suicide (2.54), natural causes (1.44), circulatory diseases (2.87), and cardiovascular disease (5.46). Moreover, these effects persisted over several years. Even more striking was the authors’ failure to note or discuss six or more even better known studies by Gissler et al examining the entire population of women in Finland3-8. They, too, used centralized records to link death certificates with treatments for pregnancy, and they, too, found significantly higher rates of mortality associated with abortion compared to childbirth. The Finland studies are especially important in that the authors have conclusively demonstrated that the methodology used by Raymond and Grimes, a simple comparison of reported mortality rates, is unreliable.5 Without record linkage, 94% percent...

Chinese Study Data From the Health Examinees Study [Comment: An American researcher has made this notation: “I would caution against a causal interpretation here as implied in the study’s bottom line: Specifically, the very same factors that lead to late age at FFTP, (i.e., subfertility), may be responsible for pre-eclampsia and downstream metabolic syndrome, diabetes, etc. I believe future research will link all these conditions back to glycine deficiency and the chronic metabolic inflammation it causes.” 17 July 2015] Introduction: Preeclampsia is one of the most common complications of pregnancy. This pregnancy-specific syndrome, characterized by new-onset hypertension along with proteinuria during gestation, occurs in approximately 3%–8% of all pregnancies worldwide.1 Preeclampsia is generally regarded as a disease of the first pregnancy, but it frequently recurs in later pregnancies.2–4 Preeclampsia increases the risk of maternal mortality, as well as neonatal morbidity and/or mortality.1,5 Furthermore, compelling evidence indicates that the long-term effects of preeclampsia are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease in later life. Previous studies have suggested that preeclampsia is associated with pathophysiological abnormalities, including endothelial dysfunction and systemic hypertension, and metabolic disorders, such as obesity, insulin resistance, hyperglycemia, and diabetes mellitus.3,6,11–14 The occurrence of a cluster of these perturbations in multiple metabolic pathways is generally known as metabolic syndrome, a condition that is assumed to create a milieu leading to increased risk of cardiovascular disease.15 This means that preeclampsia can increase the risk of metabolic syndrome, which may be an ascendant event of future cardiovascular disease… Results: … Women diagnosed with preeclampsia tended to be older at first pregnancy (25.4 years vs 24.9 years) and have higher...

In 2013, the age-adjusted cervical cancer [malignant neoplasm of cervix uteri] death rate was 2.3 per 100,000. The rate for non-Hispanic black females was nearly double the rate for non-Hispanic white females (4.0 compared to 2.1) and 1.6 higher than the rate of 2.5 for Hispanic females. From 1999 to 2013, cervical cancer death rates have decreased 31% for Hispanic females, 26% for non- Hispanic black females, and 16% for non-Hispanic white females. Age-adjusted rates (deaths per 100,000) based on the 2000 U.S. standard population. Populations used for computing death rates for 2011–2013 are postcensal estimates based on the 2010 census, estimated as of July 1, 2013. [CDC MMWR Weekly, January 23, 2015, 64(02);46; http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6402a4.htm?s_cid=mm6402a4_e ; National Vital Statistics System. Mortality public use data files, 2013. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data_access/vitalstatsonline.htm ; Reported by: Betzaida Tejada-Vera,...

In this 2014 PROSPECTIVE study, Chinese researchers found that multiple (so-called recurrent) induced abortions nearly triple the risk of PPROM (O.R. = 2.75). In other words: China’s One-Child-Policy is crippling babies: http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Shufeng_Zhou/publication/264791200_Risk_factors_for_preterm_premature_rupture_of_membranes_in_Chinese_women_from_urban_cities/links/54c267e00cf219bbe4e700ae.pdf International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Risk Factors for Preterm Premature Rupture of Membranes in Chinese Women from Urban Cities ABSTRACT Objective: To investigate the prevalence of preterm premature rupture of membranes(PPROM) in urban areas in China and examine the associated risk factors. Methods: A population-based, prospective study was undertaken in 14 cities in China between January 1, 2011, and January 31, 2012. Women were recruited at their first prenatal- care visit, when maternal characteristics were recorded. Risk factors were analyzed by one-way analysis of variance. Results: Of 112 439 women included in analyses, 3077 (2.7%) had PPROM. Univariate analysis showed an increased risk of PPROM before 28 weeks of pregnancy in migrant women (odds ratio [OR] 2.25; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.53 – 3.30; P < 0.001), in those with a history of recurrent induced abortions (OR 2.75; 95% CI1.66 – 4.56; P < 0.001), and in those with a history of preterm birth (OR 3.90; 95% CI 0.77 – 19.61; P < 0.001). The associations were maintained in multivariate analysis (P < 0.001). Conclusion: Migration as a result of urbanization, high rates of induced abortion, and preterm birth are potential risk factors for PPROM in Chinese women. Introduction Preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM) occurs spontaneously before 37 weeks of pregnancy. It complicates approximately 3% of pregnancies [1] and accounts for 20% – 30% of all preterm births [2]. PPROM is associated with cerebral palsy...

The Decline in Adolescent Pregnancy, Birth and Abortion Rates in the 1990s: What Factors Are Responsible? by The Physicians Consortium (formerly the Consortium of State Physicians Resource Councils), 7January1999 — http://www.physconsortium.com/pdfs/teen_birthrate_01_07_99.pdf NUMBER OF TEEN ABORTIONS IN 1999 LOWEST SINCE ROE, 1973 According to the AGI data, there were 835,930 pregnancies among girls ages 15-19 in 1999 — 475,745 of which ended in birth, 240,940 of which ended in abortion, and slightly more than 119,000 ended in miscarriage. Because of the difficulty in gathering the abortion data needed to calculate pregnancy data, the AGI data lag about 2 years behind birth data reports. In 1973, there were 231,900 abortions in this age group. The fewest teen abortions were 191,000 in 1972. "What I find most encouraging is that the abortion rate for teens is lower than it has ever been since abortion became legal," said O’Bannon of NRLC. "That means that fewer teens are seeing abortion as any kind of solution And that bodes well for the future." According to the data, there were 85.6 pregnancies for every 1,000 girls ages 15-19 in 1999, 27% lower than the record high of 116.9 pregnancies per 1,000 teens in 1990. Also, there were 24.7 abortions for every 1,000 teen pregnancies, the lowest rate since 1973, when the rate was 22.8 abortions for every 1,000 teen pregnancies. AGI researchers attributed about one-fourth of the decline in the teen pregnancy rate to increased abstinence among teens and the remainder to changes in behavior, including increased use of long-lasting contraceptives, such as Depo-Provera. A study published in the spring issue of Adolescent and Family Health...

ABORTION AND THE FEMINIZATION OF POVERTY Researchers with the Association of Interdisciplinary Research reviewed over 26 studies related to the impact of abortion on the socio-economic status of women. These are the findings: Women who have had abortions are at greater risk of suffering emotional and psychological problems which may interfere with their ability to concentrate, make decisions, and interact with others, thereby reducing their level of job skills and employment opportunities. Post-abortion women are more likely to engage in drug and alcohol abuse, often as a means of “numbing” negative feelings stemming from the abortion. This will in turn effect their ability to function in the workplace and may inhibit their ability to enter into meaningful relationships. Women who have had abortions are more likely to become pregnant again and have additional abortions. Nearly 50% of all abortions are repeat abortions. These repeat abortions do not represent “satisfied customers”. Instead, post-abortive women often seek replacement pregnancies to make up for the aborted child, but find themselves faced with the same social pressures which led to the first abortion. There is also evidence that some women undergo repeat abortions as an attempt to “harden” themselves to negative feelings stemming from their first abortion. Compared to their peers, teenagers who have had one abortion are 4 times more likely to have a subsequent abortion. Almost 20% of teen aborters have a second abortion within one year, and 38% have a second abortion within 5 years. Women who have had abortions are moe likely to subsequently require welfare assistance, and the odds of going on welfare increase with each subsequent abortion....

ABORTION EFFECTS ON MEN Studies show that abortion hurts men as well as women: The pain of broken relationships. Surveys demonstrated that more than 50% of the male-female relationships end within one year after the abortion of their child. Moral guilt. Of 1,050 men interviewed by the Los Angeles Times, two-thirds of those who acknowledged having fathered an aborted child said they felt guilty about it, and one-third acknowledged feelings of regret. These rates surpassed those which the Times found among post-abortive women. Feelings of helplessness and impotence. The law systematically excludes a man from his wife’s (or partner’s) decision to abort. Men are helpless to save their child, despite the fact that more than 60 percent of surveyed men believe men should be consulted under the law before their partners abort. Although many men want to protect their offspring, the Los Angeles Times found that aborting women only consulted their child’s father 43% of the time. Impoverished character. Abortion encourages sexually predatory habits by releasing men from responsibility for their actions. It has certainly encouraged male abandonment of women who don’t take the easy “out” of abortion. After interviewing 1000 men whose partners were getting abortions, sociologist Arthur Shostak warned that men who are not helped to mourn over an abortion are learning how to be even less involved as nurturing parents in the future. [Excerpted from “Almost a Daddy,” Post Abortion Ministries; from AUL,...

A study based on a national, random sample of 700 women participating in a reproductive history survey, found that of the women surveyed, those who aborted their first pregnancy were 3.9 times more likely to engage in subsequent drug or alcohol abuse than those who have never had an abortion. Women who engaged in substance abuse prior to their first pregnancy were excluded from the study. These findings had a high degree of statistical significance, p<.0001, which means that there is less than 1 chance in 10,000 that these finding could have occurred due to chance. Numerous other studies on substance abuse have also reported a correlation with abortion. For example, a 1981 random study found that women who admitted a history of induced abortion were more than twice as likely to be heavy drinkers (13%) compared to women in general (6%) (A. Klassen, “Sexual Experience and Drinking Among Women in a U.S. National Survey,” Archives of Sexual Behavior, 15(5):363, 1986) The Elliot Institute study found that for all the women surveyed who were pregnant prior to a history of substance abuse, the rate of post-pregnancy substance abuse rose from 3.8% for women who did not abort, to 14.6% for women who did abort their first pregnancy. These findings are of special concern because abortion related substance abuse can have a profound impact on other areas of a woman’s life, including relationship problems, job-related difficulties, health problems, and increased risk of auto accidents resulting in injuries to themselves and others. [The Post-Abortion Review, Fall...

New Study Links Abortion to Metabolic Syndrome, Increasing Risk of Heart Disease and Stroke A new study [ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23389282 , see below] has found that women with a history of induced abortion were more likely to experience metabolic syndrome compared to women who had never had abortions, increasing their risk for cardiovascular disease, diabetes and stroke. Women who had a history of induced abortion were 1.25 times more likely to have metabolic syndrome [ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0004546/ ] compared to women who had never had abortions. No significant association was found between women who had a history of spontaneous abortion, or miscarriage, and increased risk of metabolic syndrome. The study, carried out in China, looked at 6,302 women aged 40 or over who answered questionnaires about their lifestyles and medical and reproductive histories, and underwent medical tests. The researchers found that a history of induced abortion at an early age "could confer a high risk" for metabolic syndrome later in life and that the risk increased with each abortion. "Our data add to the evidence that induced abortion might cause potential long-term health consequences," they wrote in their paper, citing studies linking abortion to increased rates of breast cancer in women. The data confirms findings from an earlier record-based study [ http://afterabortion.org/2002/new-study-shows-abortion-death-rate-higher-than-previously-known/ ] of approximately 173,000 California women, which found that women with a history of abortion were almost twice as likely to die in the following years compared to women who carried to term, and that the higher mortality rate of aborting women persisted over at least eight years. Over the eight year period studied, women who aborted had a...

ABORTION IS SAFER THAN CHILDBIRTH?? Feb, 2012 The prominent "Original Research" article "The Comparative Safety of Legal Induced Abortion and Childbirth in the United States", by Raymond and Grimes in the Feb, 2012, journal "Obstetrics & Gynecology," rehearses the "original mantra" of the choice argument: "Abortion is safer than Childbirth." To reach this conclusion, Raymond and Grimes employ statistical methodologies seen before, using inadequate or incomplete data, ignoring some important literature, and drawing general conclusions using limited and, we feel, inaccurate "facts." AAPLOG finds this article to be a very serious distortion of reality as we understand the reality. We have sent you 2 previous letters commenting on the Grimes Article. To review, go to http://www.aaplog.org/get-involved/letters-to-members/ and see letters of Jan 27 and Jan 28. This letter contains some additional critique from AAPLOG. The new study by Dr. Grimes relies on two magic tricks of statistics. The key to the first trick is the word "reported" deaths. It is well known that over 95% of live births occur in hospitals, where the death will be recorded. So, live birth mortality is a pretty accurate number. But, abortion mortality is not systematically collected. The CDC states clearly on their website that only 45 of the 50 states even report the number of abortions, much less their complications and deaths. Many of states that do report deaths collect the data haphazardly, by voluntary reporting. That is why the Guttmacher Institute and the CDC total numbers for abortion are significantly different. Even Dr. Grimes hints at this, since even he doesn't rely on either number, but also searches the literature. A great...

Study: Women Who Use Abortion Drug Mifepristone Experience More Pain, Emotional Distress The abortion drug mifepristone (more commonly known as RU 486) was supposed to be a panacea for women — allowing them to have safer abortions in the privacy of their own home. But a new study out of England finds women who had the drug-induced abortions preferred the surgical abortion procedure. They complained of more medical problems and more mental health issues following the use of the abortion drug and the passing of the body of the dead baby. More than half the women who took the abortion drug (53 percent) told researchers their experience was worse than expected. Teresa Kelly and colleagues at Newcastle University followed 122 women who had either the surgical abortion or used the mifepristone pill in the second trimester of pregnancy and published their findings in the obstetrics journal BJOG. They found all of the women in the surgical abortion group would decide to have a surgical abortion again. The women who used the abortion drug reported more pain and more vaginal bleeding and, two weeks after the abortion, they were much more likely to report "intrusive" psychological symptoms ranging from unwanted thoughts to nightmares of killing their unborn child. The authors of the study acknowledged its limitations, according to a Reuters report, saying they had a hard time finding women willing to be randomly assigned the abortion drug or having the surgical abortion procedure. And only 60 percent of women returned the follow-up questionnaire. "The results therefore need confirming in a much larger study before the real clinical impact can be...

Surgical abortion may increase the likelihood of certain autoimmune diseases, according to a new report by Dr. Ralph P. Miech of Brown University. Fetal microchimerism – the transfer of fetal cells into the bloodstream of the mother, whence they may be grafted on to bone marrow or other tissues – is the key link between abortion and autoimmune disease, says Miech. The researcher pointed out that as the placenta is destroyed during a surgical abortion, there is an increased "fetal-to-maternal transfer of fetal … cells." These fetal cells may persist in the mother’s body for decades. "Activation of hibernating fetal microchimeric cells," Dr. Miech writes, has "been postulated to result in the initiation of an autoimmune disease." Autoimmune diseases occur when the body's immune system mistakenly attacks its own tissues and cells as if they were foreign. Certain triggers, Dr. Miech states, may activate the "fetal microchimeric immune cells to attack the maternal host cells, resulting in an autoimmune disease," although these triggers "have not yet been definitely identified." This would explain why women during their reproductive and post-reproductive years are more likely than men to develop many chronic autoimmune diseases. According to Dr. Miech, such diseases have "had for decades an unexplainable increasing incidence." "The consistently rising incidence of auto-immune diseases in women over the past four decades may be attributed to the increase in the utilization of abortion," he says. Dr. Miech has also performed research linking the abortion drug RU 486 to a rare bacterial infection. In that research, Dr. Miech showed that the anti-progesterone effects of Mifepristone cause changes in the cervix that allow C....

Preliminary findings by a prominent biomedical researcher examining the dramatic decrease in maternal mortality, over the past fifty years in the Latin American nation of Chile, appear to undercut claims by global abortion lobbyists that liberal abortion laws are necessary to reduce maternal mortality rates. According Dr. Elard Koch, an epidemiologist on the faculty of medicine at the University of Chile, Chile's promotion of "safe pregnancy" measures such as "prenatal detection" and accessibility to professional birth attendants in a hospital setting are primarily responsible for the decrease in maternal mortality. The maternal mortality rate declined from 275 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 1960 to 18.7 deaths in 2000, the largest reduction in any Latin country. Because Chile is a nation that protects unborn life in its penal laws and constitution, the decline is therefore not attributable to access to legal abortion. In fact, the preliminary study shows, maternal mortality in Chile declined over the last century regardless of whether abortion was legal or illegal. Chile tightened its restrictions on abortion in the late 1980s. According to Dr. Koch, "From 1960 onwards, there has been a breakthrough in the public health system and primary care" in Chile, with resources devoted to the development of "highly trained personnel, the construction of many primary health centers and the increase of schooling of the population.” Education appeared to be a primary factor in the country’s improved maternal health. Chile today touts a maternal health record comparable to those of developed nations. Statistics released the World Health Organization (WHO) support such conclusions. In South America, according to WHO,...

Survey Finds Girls Less Likely Than Boys to Recommend Abortion to Friends A new survey conducted by the Girl Scouts finds girls are less likely than boys to recommend abortion to their friends. And, overall, less than 10 percent of young people say they would ever suggest an abortion. The numbers are from a new nationwide survey released today by Girl Scouts of the USA. The study, conducted by the Girl Scout Research Institute (GSRI), is nearly identical to one Girl Scouts commissioned in 1989. A comparison of the two shows a marked shift toward more ethical and responsible beliefs and values and civic involvement among teens and tweens, the organization noted. Among teenagers queried in the survey, girls are less likely than boys to say they would advise an abortion — with just 6 percent of girls saying so and 12 percent of boys saying they would advise one. The study also finds that one third of teenagers say they intend to wait until they are married to have sex compared to less than a quarter (24 percent) in 1989. Among teenagers, girls are less likely than boys to say they would have sex (18 percent vs. 38 percent) . In addition, 71 percent say their religious beliefs are important to them. The survey was of 3,263 girls and boys from the third through twelfth grades and queried them on issues ranging from ethics and diversity to civic involvement and peer pressure. The study was conducted with Harris Interactive (formerly Louis Harris Inc., the same firm that worked on the 1989 study.) [13 January 2010, www.LifeNews.com, Washington,...